Systems and methods for determining ad impression utility

ABSTRACT

Various systems and methods for measuring ad impression effectiveness are provided. A method is provided comprising selecting, by an ad impression processor, a target consumer for an ad impression, delivering the ad impression to the target consumer, determining, by the processor, a behavior of the target consumer after a time period elapses, wherein the determining comprises analyzing internal data relating to the target consumer.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No.13/204,433, entitled SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR DETERMINING AD IMPRESSIONUTILITY, filed Aug. 5, 2011. This application also claims priority toU.S. application Ser. No. 13/204,473, entitled SYSTEMS AND METHODS FORDETERMINING AD IMPRESSION UTILITY filed Aug. 5, 2011. Both the '433application and '473 application are incorporated herein by reference intheir entirety.

FIELD

The disclosure generally relates to ad impression analysis, and moreparticularly, to systems and methods for determining ad impressionutility.

BACKGROUND

Successful advertising campaigns are often an important component in abusiness's marketing strategy. However, it is often difficult todetermine the effectiveness of particular ad impressions or campaigns.Effectiveness may include, for example, the rate at which the recipientsof an ad impression purchase the item advertised, the increase inconsumer goodwill that results from the ad impression, and/or the rateat which the recipients of an ad impression frequent a particularmerchant. Moreover, it is difficult to determine the precise number ofrecipients of an ad impression that is broadcast (e.g., via television,radio and the like). Thus, it would be advantageous for systems andmethods to determine both the effectiveness of an ad impression and toassist in the delivery and creation of effective ad impressions.

SUMMARY

Various systems and methods for determining the effectiveness of adimpressions are provided herein in various embodiments. A method isprovided comprising selecting a target consumer for an ad impression,delivering the ad impression to the target consumer, and determining abehavior of the target consumer after a time period elapses, wherein thedetermining comprises analyzing internal data relating to the targetconsumer. Further, in various embodiments, methods are provided whereinthe target consumer is a member of a plurality of target consumers andwherein each target consumer in the plurality of target consumers has acharacteristic similar to the target consumer.

In still further embodiments, methods are provided further comprisingselecting a plurality of control consumers that will not receive the adimpression, wherein each control consumer in the plurality of controlconsumers has the characteristic similar to the target consumer,determining a behavior of the plurality of control consumers after thetime period elapses, wherein the determining comprises analyzinginternal data relating to the plurality of control consumers, andcomparing the behavior of the plurality of control consumers with thebehavior of the plurality of target consumers.

A method is provided comprising determining, by an ad impressionprocessor, a characteristic of a target consumer set, wherein thedetermining comprises analyzing internal data relating to the targetconsumer set; creating, by the processor, an ad impression in responseto the characteristic; determining, by the processor, a target consumerwho exhibits the characteristic; and, delivering, by the processor, thead impression to the target consumer.

A method is provided comprising selecting, by a frequency of behaviorprocessor, a consumer set having a similar characteristic; dividing, bythe processor, the consumer set into a target consumer set and a controlconsumer set; delivering an ad impression to the target consumer set;determining, by the processor, a frequency of behavior of the targetconsumer set after a time period elapses by analyzing internal datarelating to the target consumer set; determining, by the processor, thefrequency of behavior of the control consumer set after the time periodelapses by analyzing internal data relating to the control consumer set;comparing, by the processor, the frequency of behavior of the controlconsumer set to the frequency of behavior of the target consumer set.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and other features and advantages are hereinafter described inthe following detailed description of exemplary embodiments to be readin conjunction with the accompanying drawing figures, wherein likereference numerals are used to identify the same or similar parts in thesimilar views, and:

FIG. 1 illustrates a method of measuring ad impression effectiveness,according to various embodiments;

FIG. 2 illustrates a method of determining behavior, according tovarious embodiments;

FIG. 3 illustrates a method of creating an ad impression, according tovarious embodiments;

FIG. 4 illustrates a method of determining the target consumer,according to various embodiments; and

FIG. 5 illustrates a method of measuring ad impression effectivenessagainst a control, according to various embodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The detailed description of exemplary embodiments herein makes referenceto the accompanying drawings and pictures, which show the exemplaryembodiment by way of illustration and its best mode. While theseexemplary embodiments are described in sufficient detail to enable thoseskilled in the art to practice the disclosure, it should be understoodthat other embodiments may be realized and that logical and mechanicalchanges may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of thedisclosure. Thus, the detailed description herein is presented forpurposes of illustration only and not of limitation. For example, thesteps recited in any of the method or process descriptions may beexecuted in any order and are not limited to the order presented.Moreover, any of the functions or steps may be outsourced to orperformed by one or more third parties. Furthermore, any reference tosingular includes plural embodiments, and any reference to more than onecomponent may include a singular embodiment. Terms similar to“connection” may include a partial or full connection and/or a partialor full interface.

Systems, methods and computer program products are provided. In thedetailed description herein, references to “one embodiment”, “anembodiment”, “an example embodiment”, etc., indicate that the embodimentdescribed may include a particular feature, structure, orcharacteristic, but every embodiment may not necessarily include theparticular feature, structure, or characteristic. Moreover, such phrasesare not necessarily referring to the same embodiment. Further, when aparticular feature, structure, or characteristic is described inconnection with an embodiment, it is submitted that it is within theknowledge of one skilled in the art to effect such feature, structure,or characteristic in connection with other embodiments whether or notexplicitly described. After reading the description, it will be apparentto one skilled in the relevant art(s) how to implement the disclosure inalternative embodiments.

In various embodiments, the methods described herein are implementedusing the various particular machines described herein. The methodsdescribed herein may be implemented using the below particular machines,and those hereinafter developed, in any suitable combination, as wouldbe appreciated immediately by one skilled in the art. Further, as isunambiguous from this disclosure, the methods described herein mayresult in various transformations of certain articles. The disclosuremay be implemented as a method, system or in a computer readable medium.

Ad impressions, as used herein, may include any form of advertising orsolicitation for any item that may influence a person or business entityto engage in a desired behavior. For example, an ad impression may betelevision commercial, a radio commercial, a print advertisement (e.g.,an advertisement found in a newspaper, magazine, or handbill), abillboard, an electronic advertisement (e.g., an advertisement found ona web page or email, whether alone or with other content, a sponsoredlink, and/or an advertisement found in a software application, such asthose available for various smartphones, as described herein), a directmail advertisement, or a sponsored place or event such as a sponsoredsports stadium name (e.g., Citi Field) or a sponsored race series (e.g.,the Sprint Cup Series). Ad impressions may be broadcast in mass mediaand/or be targeted to specific recipients, such as through a targetedemail advertisement campaign. Ad impressions may be distributed onlineto specific recipients or classes of recipients. Any ad impression maybe distributed to specific recipients or classes of recipients, such asonline advertisements and advertisements in magazines or newspapers thatare personally printed for a given a person.

Ad impression effectiveness may include the rate at which people exposedto an ad impression engage in a behavior that is desired or beneficialto the sponsor of the ad impression. The desired behavior may be, forexample, purchasing a particular target item (as used herein, a targetitem may include a product, a service, or a combination of both),purchasing an item that is a competitive with the particular targetitem, purchasing an item that is a complementary with the particulartarget item, visiting a particular merchant or geographic location, orconsuming particular media content. Such ad impression effectiveness maybe referred to as the acceptance rate for an ad impression. Adimpression effectiveness may also include other components, such as ameasure of the negative goodwill the ad impression may provide torecipients. For example, an ad impression that is provocative may have ahigh rate of acceptance but may also generate a high level of negativegoodwill.

The format, design, and/or content of an ad impression may be referredto as ad impression strength. For example, a stronger ad impression maybe one that has greater ad impression effectiveness than another adimpression, controlling for other variables. The timing and targeting ofan ad impression may be referred to as ad impression precision. Forexample, a television ad during a large sporting event has low adimpression precision, as the audience is a broad-based, mass audience. Atelevision ad during a television show that has a narrow demographicaudience may thus be more precise. More precise still would be an onlineadvertisement appearing in or near search engine results, or with evenmore precision, an online advertisement sent to a smartphone that islocated near (either in space or time) a particular item and where thesmartphone user is known to purchase the particular item or acompetitive item at that time or in that space. For example, asmartphone application that displays a coffee shop advertisement whenthe smartphone is within two blocks of the coffee shop is a precise adimpression.

Business entities (for example, merchants) may improve their adimpressions and/or ad impression effectiveness by harnessing datarelated to customers and/or consumers behaviors. As used herein, theterm “consumer” may mean any person or entity that consumes or uses aparticular item. As used herein, a customer may mean a person or entitythat has purchased and/or may purchase in the future a particular itemfrom a given business entity, such as a merchant. Thus, a customer listmay be a list of people or entities that have purchased or may purchasea particular item from another entity, such as a merchant.

In various embodiments, consumer behavior may be determined by usinginternal data. “Internal data” and terms similar to “internal data” mayinclude any data a credit issuer possesses or acquires pertaining to aparticular consumer or group of consumers. Internal data may be gatheredfrom a transaction system, such as a closed loop transaction system.Internal data may be gathered before, during, or after a relationshipbetween the credit issuer and the transaction account holder (e.g., theconsumer or buyer). Such data may include consumer demographic data.Consumer demographic data may include any data pertaining to a consumer.Consumer demographic data may include consumer name, gender, age,address (including ZIP code and 4 digit extension, also known as“ZIP+4”), telephone number, email address, employer and social securitynumber. Consumer transactional data may include any data pertaining tothe particular transactions in which a consumer engages during any giventime period. Consumer transactional data may include, for example,transaction amount, transaction time, transaction vendor/merchant, andtransaction vendor/merchant location. Transaction vendor/merchantlocation may contain a high degree of specificity to a vendor/merchant.For example, transaction vendor/merchant location may include aparticular gasoline filing station in a particular postal code locatedat a particular cross section or address. Also, for example, transactionvendor/merchant location may include a particular web address, such as aUniform Resource Locator (“URL”), an email address and/or an InternetProtocol (“IP”) address for a vendor/merchant. Transactionvendor/merchant, and transaction vendor/merchant location may beassociated with a particular consumer and further associated with setsof consumers. Consumer payment data includes any data pertaining to aconsumer's history of paying debt obligations. Consumer payment data mayinclude consumer payment dates, payment amounts, balance amount, andcredit limit. Internal data may further comprise records of consumerservice calls, complaints, requests for credit line increases,questions, and comments. A record of a consumer service call includes,for example, date of call, reason for call, and any transcript orsummary of the actual call.

Internal data from, for example, a closed loop transaction system, maycomprise transactional behaviors for a large number of individuals. Inaddition, internal data may include transaction details such as time,geographic location, and amount. By analyzing such information with datarelating to the exposures to ad impression, the effects of the adimpression may become apparent. A large sample of internal data improvesthe ability of one to evaluate ad impressions.

In various embodiments, ad impression effectiveness may be improved byappropriate selection of a target consumer using, in variousembodiments, analysis of internal data, among other factors. Forexample, with reference to ad impression delivery 100 in FIG. 1, selecttarget consumer 102 is performed. Select target consumer 102 maycomprise analysis of internal data of potential target consumers.

Target consumers may be selected by selecting any single datum orcombination of internal data and/or other consumer data that may bejoined, merged, and/or otherwise associated with internal data. Forexample, select target consumer 102 may select target consumer based onthe time, location, and content of prior purchase, annual income level,home ZIP+4 code, household or individual size of wallet or share ofwallet, consumer gender, consumer age, consumer identified as reaching acertain level of spend in a given sales cycle, consumers who have madepurchases through a particular sales channel, consumers who haveresponded to marketing campaigns based on specific offer types, productbundling/product types, specific seasons, marketing creative andspecific advertising/marketing channels, consumers who are defined ashigh value through purchase amount (i.e., historical transactionalamount), consumers geographic information (including instantaneousgeographic information obtained from a digital device such as aGPS-equipped smartphone and historical instantaneous geographicinformation obtained from similar sources) consumers preference for aparticular merchant or type of merchant, consumers media preference orpsychographic information (e.g., consumers preference of NPR over FoxNews), consumers defined by the sequence of products that a consumerpurchases (e.g., TV, computer, printer, ink), consumers response tosurveys, consumers data collected by third parties (including creditbureaus), consumers satisfied with a particular product or brand,consumers who attrite, consumers who make an insurance claim, consumerswho have been identified as providing a particular level of return oninvestment or return to a merchant based on marketing initiatives orpurchase history, consumers who have viewed a merchant's social networkpage, ad, and/or feed (e.g., a Facebook, MySpace, and/or LinkedIn pageand/or a Twitter or RSS feed), other social network ad, television ad,consumers' viewing of an advertising channel which lead to a sale orother action, consumers who have a high or low opinion of a particularmerchant's brand(s), or any other event or data point that may allowmatching or joining with internal data.

In addition, data from third parties (e.g., credit bureaus or othersources) may be used in a select target consumer 102. For example, athird party data sources may provide customer credit scores, socialnetwork histories (which include any information a social network maygather regarding a consumer, for example, posted messages, approximateage and gender of spouse, children and other members of household,pictures, past consumer geographic locations, patterns of past consumergeographic locations, propensity to engage in risky behaviors and thefrequency of engaging in the same, marital status, substance usehistory, dating history, education level, present and past health statusincluding disease status), public records, consumer transactionsconducted using alternate payment systems, consumer health status, andany other data relating to consumers who may appear in the internaldata.

Select target consumer 102 may comprise, for example, selecting aconsumer who has purchased an average of over $200 per month over agiven calendar year on fine dining or, also for example, selecting aconsumer who has purchased over $1,000 from a luxury retailer in a givenmonth, or, also for example, selecting a consumer who has purchased over$1,000 worth of golf related products and services over a given primegolf season. For example, select target consumer 102 may compriseselecting consumers who have automobile installment loans with anin-house luxury car financing company, an in-house mass market carfinancing company, and/or a subprime lender.

Select target consumer 102 thus results in the identification of atarget consumer or target consumer set that will receive an adimpression. Personally identifiable information regarding the targetconsumer need not be known, but rather that the target consumer may havecertain characteristics as determined in select target consumer 102.

Deliver ad impression 104 may comprise delivering an ad impression viabroadcast and/or via specific delivery that may reach a target consumeror target consumer set. A broadcast ad impression may be a televisioncommercial or radio commercial. A specific delivery may be an appearanceof an online ad impression, a print ad impression in a given printpublication's subscriber's edition, an ad impression delivered to apersonal device of a consumer (e.g., iPod, iPad, smartphone, etc) and/orany delivery method having a reasonably ascertainable recipient.

Determine behavior 106 may comprise determining a behavior of a targetconsumer or target consumer set. A behavior may include participation inone or more transactions, the lack of participation in one or moretransactions, and/or the participation in a trip or other event.Behaviors may be determined by analysis of internal data relating to thetarget consumer or target consumer set. Internal data may be searchedfor transactional records that may implicate the ad impression. In manycases, the ad impression may be associated with a transaction involvinga particular merchant or in a particular geographic area.

The behaviors determined in determine behavior 106 may then beassociated with the ad impression delivered in deliver ad impression104. In certain cases, the ad impression may contemplate purchase of aparticular item that may be purchased at a variety of merchants. Forexample, the ad impression for a NIKON camera may lead to a transactionat a camera store, though the internal data may reveal only atransaction involving a camera store. To strengthen the associationbetween the transaction record of internal data and the ad impression,estimation may be used. For example, an ad impression for a $1,000 NIKONcamera may be associated with a transaction between the target consumerand a camera store totaling $1,200, which may include tax and/or thepurchase of accessories. To further strengthen the association betweenthe transaction record of internal data and the ad impression, SKU leveldata from the camera store may be merged or joined with the internaldata. In such a manner, the $1,200 purchase may be definitivelyidentified as a transaction involving the camera of the ad impressionor, in the alternative, may confirm that the purchase of a competingcamera (e.g. sale of a CANON camera) or a higher level camera of thebrand in the ad impression (e.g., sale of a NIKON D700 over a NIKOND300s). In other examples, the ad impression contemplates that thetarget consumer travel to a particular destination. Thus, an adimpression delivered to a Minnesota resident contemplating a winter tripto Arizona may be associated with transactions occurring in Scottsdale,Ariz.

Association of an ad impression and internal data may be performed inany suitable manner. For example, the data related to the ad impressionand internal data may be joined or otherwise merged. Performing a join,for example, may be accomplished using any join function known in theart, as described herein. For example, a search or join may be performedto match records from one data set to another. For example, a join maybe performed on a target consumer that was exposed to an ad impressionfor a connection to the item contemplated by the ad impression. The joinmay utilize a range of data depending upon the desired results, and thejoin query may account for differences in time stamps across varioussystems. For example, if a join fails to return any results, thetransaction time may be altered slightly in the event the internal datais a few seconds or minutes different from the first merchant data. Asan example, for table ad_table having a consumer_id column, atransaction_merchant column and a received_ad_imp column and a tableinternal_data having internal data, the following query may be used toobtain a consumer who engaged in a transaction with the first merchant:SELECT transaction_date, transaction_time, transaction_amount,transaction_merchant FROM internal_data WHEREad_table.consumer=internal_data.consumer_id ANDad_tableseceived_ad_imp=Y ANDad_table.transaction_merchant=internal_data.transaction_merchant.

The time between ad impression delivery and a transaction associatedwith the ad impression may also be calculated. Moreover, ad impressioneffectiveness may thus be measured. For example, if many targetconsumers in a target consumer set are exposed to the ad impression anda proportionally high number of those target consumer engage in atransaction contemplated by the ad impression, the ad impression may beconsidered to have high ad impression effectiveness.

The process of determine behavior 106 is shown in more detail in process200 of FIG. 2. Determine ad impression 202 may comprise retrieving whichad impression was delivered to a target consumer. Then, search for exactmatch 204 is performed, as described above. The exact match may comprisea transaction that definitively or nearly definitively demonstrates abehavior that is consistent with a delivered ad impression. For example,as described above, if a search of internal data revealed a transactionat a particular merchant after an ad impression for the merchant wasviewed, then an exact match would be found. An exact match may alsocomprise a nearly definitive match, which would comprise a transactionat a merchant that sells an item displayed in the ad impression wherethe transaction amount was near the amount the item typically costs.This may be the manufacturer's suggested price, or a range of otherdiscounted prices given the selling merchant. For example, a televisionsold at a retail store may sell closer to the manufacturer's suggestedprice than the same television sold at a warehouse store. As describedabove, third party data sources may be used to transform a nearlydefinitive match to a definitive match.

If an exact match is found in exact match 204, search for complementary206 is performed. Search for complementary 206 may comprise a search forthe target consumer purchasing a complementary item than the itemcontemplated by the ad impression. For example, an ad impression for atelevision may yield a consumer transaction at a warehouse chain. Thewarehouse chain may provide SKU level data to merge with internal data.Thus, it may be found that the consumer also purchased a wall mountingset or additional cables. Also for example, an ad impression for abaseball game may be associated with the target consumer frequenting adining establishment prior to the baseball game and/or a bar after thebaseball game.

If search for exact match 204 does not yield an exact match, search forcompetitive transaction 208 is performed. Search for competitivetransaction 208 may comprise a search for the target consumer purchasinga competitive item than the item contemplated by the ad impression. Forexample, a consumer exposed to an ad impression for an Apple Macintoshmay have internal data relating to the purchase of a Dell PC. Acompetitive transaction may also be of an item slightly above or belowthe price point of an ad impression. Such information may assistbusinesses in setting price points below that of higher end items butabove lower quality items. For example, if an ad impression contemplatespurchase of a certain brand of car and the target consumer is laterdetermined to be purchasing a competing car from a more “upmarketbrand,” it may be considered a competitive transaction, even if the twocars are not per se competitors.

In various embodiments, ad impression strength may be improved. Adimpression strength process 300 is shown in FIG. 3. Determine targetconsumer set 302 is shown. Determine target consumer set 302 maycomprise identifying consumer's that may be receptive to certain adimpressions. Receptiveness to ad impressions may be measured through forexample, one or more iterations of ad impression delivery 100. Statedanother way, a consumer may be tracked over a period of time todetermine which ad impressions are effective for a particular consumer.The effective ad impressions may then be analyzed for common themes orelements or channels. For example, a consumer may be more receptive toonline ad impressions over television ad impressions, or ad impressionsdelivered via smartphone or tablet app than over an internet searchengine screen. Also for example, a consumer may be more receptive to adimpressions that are humorous or light hearted as opposed to adimpressions that are more serious in tone. Receptiveness to adimpressions may also be measured through frequent transactions orgeographic locations. For example, a target consumer set may frequent aparticular train or bus route on weekdays or may travel a particularroad on weekdays. Such consumers may then be receptive to ad impressionsthat contemplate transactions that may occur with minimal disruption todaily commuting or transactions that would alter the daily commute, suchas real estate ad impressions for real estate close to large officebuildings or an urban center. Consumers that frequently engage intransactions with a baby superstore may thus be more receptive to adimpressions for baby related items.

The receptiveness of a target consumer set to various ad impressions orto types of ad impressions, as determined in determine target consumerset 302, may be used in created impression 304. Create ad impression 304may be any process that changes or creates the look, sound, or otherperceptible qualities of an ad impression or brand name. Create adimpression 304 may thus comprise the complete design of an ad impressionor the modification of an existing ad impression. Create ad impression304 may comprise selecting elements of ad impression that are associatedwith enhanced ad impression effectiveness amongst certain targetconsumers to incorporate into another ad impression. Thus, adimpressions that have a definite, tangible result on motivating consumerbehavior may be selected for use to create additional successful adimpressions. Create ad impression 304 may also depend upon theparticular target consumer as performed in determine target consumer 306and time and delivery of the ad impression, as performed in deliver adimpression 308.

For example, it may be found that a target consumer set is morereceptive to automobiles having model names that are comprised ofletters and numbers rather than a complete word. Other target consumersets, however, may be receptive to model names that include a completeword. Thus, depending on the selected target consumer set, an adimpression or brand name (here, a car model name), may be selectedaccordingly. Also for example, a target consumer set may be morereceptive to text-rich print ad impressions delivered in a newsmagazine, while another target consumer set may be more receptive toprint ad impressions that comprise photographs and minimal wording. In afurther example, it may be found that a target consumer may be morereceptive to ad impressions for companies that appear to be locally runor operated, or that create organic or “artisan” type items. In a stillfurther example, it may be found that a target consumer set may bereceptive to online ad impressions than television ad impressions.

Create ad impression 304 may also depend upon the time and delivery ofthe ad impression, as performed in deliver ad impression 308. Forexample, a target consumer set may comprise consumers who engage intransactions at a particular gourmet coffee shop between 5 am and 7 amon week days. A doughnut shop in the same area (and, indeed, in the sameshopping center or on the same block) may thus create an ad impressionthat emphasizes their reasonably priced, gourmet-style coffee and itsfast service. Deliver ad impression, as described herein, may thendeliver the ad impression to a target consumer's smartphone during amorning commute to work. Also for example, a print ad impression may becustomized for target consumers in a particular geographic region. Thus,a magazine may print ad impressions that vary by locality.

In response to an ad impression being created in create ad impression304, determine target consumer 306 determines a specific target consumerfor the ad impression. The target consumer determined by determinetarget consumer 306 may have a similar ad impression receptiveness asthose of the target consumer set found in determine target consumer set302. The target consumer set may share one or more characteristics, butin various embodiments may differ in certain characteristics as well.For example, a target consumer set may comprise those receptive to loud,colorful television advertisements who frequently engage in transactionswith “big box” discount stores. A target consumer may be a consumer thatis receptive to loud, colorful television advertisements, but notnecessarily a frequent customer of “big box” discount stores. Byassociating characteristics of the target consumer set with the targetconsumer, ad impression effectiveness tends to increase.

Determine target consumer 306 may comprises process 400, found in FIG.4. Search for common factors 402 identifies common characteristics of atarget consumer set. Aggregate commons factors 404 gathers the commonfactors together for ease of analysis. Associate common factorscomprises the association of the aggregate common factors with potentialtarget consumers so that the target consumer may be identified.

With reference back to FIG. 3, deliver ad impression 308 comprisesselecting and transmitting the ad impression in a delivery channel.While a specific target consumer may be sent a specific ad impression,the ad impression may be delivered in response to a search of a websearch engine or a request for a geographic location. Deliver adimpression 308 may comprise a broadcast distribution such as atelevision commercial.

In various embodiments, ad impression effectiveness is measured as inmeasurement 500. Divide target and control 502 comprises bothidentifying a consumer set and dividing consumer set into a targetconsumer set and a control consumer set. The target consumer set and thecontrol consumer set may be of the same size (i.e., number ofconsumers), though in various embodiments the target consumer set andthe control consumer set are not of the same size. In variousembodiments, the assignment of a consumer in the consumer set to eitherthe control consumer set or the target consumer set is completedrandomly, or as close to randomly as possible.

Deliver to target 504 comprises delivery of an ad impression to thetarget consumer set. Do not deliver 508 comprises the withholding of thead impression from the control consumer set. The withholding may occurat the same time of deliver to target 504, or it may occur at othertimes. For example, if an ad impression is intended to be seen by aconsumer set of five thousand commuters on a train route, twenty fivehundred of the target consumer set may be exposed to the ad impressionfor a nearby coffee shop via a smartphone application while twenty fivehundred in the control consumer set are not exposed to the adimpression.

Determine behavior 506 comprises determining the behavior (e.g., thefrequency of behavior) of the target consumer set and the controlconsumer set. In various embodiments, internal data related to both thetarget consumer set and the control consumer set is used in determinebehavior 506. For example, given the example above relating to commuterson a train, the transactions of the target consumer set are evaluatedagainst the control consumer set. If the coffee shop that was thesubject of the ad impression experiences a higher rate of transactionsor a higher average per ticket for transactions among the targetconsumer set than observed in the control consumer set, and thatdifference is statistically significant, the ad impression may beconsidered to have had an effect on consumer behavior.

The improvement of ad impression effectiveness is important across avariety of industries and businesses. Nearly every business marketsitself in some fashion, and the herein described methods and systemsallow for improved measuring of ad impression effectiveness that usesactual transactional data.

For the sake of brevity, conventional data networking, applicationdevelopment and other functional aspects of the systems (and componentsof the individual operating components of the systems) may not bedescribed in detail herein. Furthermore, the connecting lines shown inthe various figures contained herein are intended to represent exemplaryfunctional relationships and/or physical couplings between the variouselements. It should be noted that many alternative or additionalfunctional relationships or physical connections may be present in apractical system.

The various system components discussed herein may include one or moreof the following: a host server or other computing systems including aprocessor for processing digital data; a memory coupled to the processorfor storing digital data; an input digitizer coupled to the processorfor inputting digital data; an application program stored in the memoryand accessible by the processor for directing processing of digital databy the processor; a display device coupled to the processor and memoryfor displaying information derived from digital data processed by theprocessor; and a plurality of databases. Various databases used hereinmay include: internal data, client data; merchant data; financialinstitution data; and/or like data useful in the operation of thesystem. As those skilled in the art will appreciate, a computer mayinclude an operating system (e.g., Windows NT, 95/98/2000, XP, Vista,OS2, UNIX, Linux, Solaris, MacOS, iOS, Android, etc.) as well as variousconventional support software and drivers typically associated withcomputers. A user may include any individual, business, entity,government organization, software and/or hardware that interact with asystem.

A web client includes any device (e.g., personal computer or smartphoneor tablet computer) which communicates via any network, for example suchas those discussed herein. Such browser applications comprise Internetbrowsing software installed within a computing unit or a system toconduct online transactions and/or communications. These computing unitsor systems may take the form of a computer or set of computers, althoughother types of computing units or systems may be used, includinglaptops, notebooks, hand held computers, personal digital assistants,set-top boxes, workstations, computer-servers, main frame computers,mini-computers, PC servers, pervasive computers, network sets ofcomputers, personal computers, such as tablet computers (e.g., tabletsrunning Android, iPads), iMACs, and MacBooks, kiosks, terminals, pointof sale (POS) devices and/or terminals, televisions, or any other devicecapable of receiving data over a network. A web-client may run MicrosoftInternet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Apple Safari, Opera,or any other of the myriad software packages available for browsing theinternet.

Practitioners will appreciate that a web client may or may not be indirect contact with an application server. For example, a web client mayaccess the services of an application server through another serverand/or hardware component, which may have a direct or indirectconnection to an Internet server. For example, a web client maycommunicate with an application server via a load balancer. In anexemplary embodiment, access is through a network or the Internetthrough a commercially-available web-browser software package.

As those skilled in the art will appreciate, a web client includes anoperating system (e.g., Windows NT, 95/98/2000/CE/Mobile/XP/Vista/7,OS2, UNIX, Linux, Solaris, MacOS, MacOS X, PalmOS, iOS, Android, etc.)as well as various conventional support software and drivers typicallyassociated with computers. A web client may include any suitablepersonal computer, network computer, workstation, personal digitalassistant, cellular phone, smartphone, minicomputer, mainframe or thelike. A web client can be in a home or business environment with accessto a network. In an exemplary embodiment, access is through a network orthe Internet through a commercially available web-browser softwarepackage. A web client may implement security protocols such as SecureSockets Layer (SSL) and Transport Layer Security (TLS). A web client mayimplement several application layer protocols including http, https,ftp, and sftp.

In various embodiments, various components, modules, and/or engines of asystem may be implemented as micro-applications or micro-apps.Micro-apps are typically deployed in the context of a mobile operatingsystem, including for example, a Palm mobile operating system, a Windowsmobile operating system, an Android Operating System, Apple iOS, aBlackberry operating system and the like. The micro-app may beconfigured to leverage the resources of the larger operating system andassociated hardware via a set of predetermined rules which govern theoperations of various operating systems and hardware resources. Forexample, where a micro-app desires to communicate with a device ornetwork other than the mobile device or mobile operating system, themicro-app may leverage the communication protocol of the operatingsystem and associated device hardware under the predetermined rules ofthe mobile operating system. Moreover, where the micro-app desires aninput from a user, the micro-app may be configured to request a responsefrom the operating system which monitors various hardware components andthen communicates a detected input from the hardware to the micro-app.

As used herein, the term “network” includes any cloud, cloud computingsystem or electronic communications system or method which incorporateshardware and/or software components. Communication among the parties maybe accomplished through any suitable communication channels, such as,for example, a telephone network, an extranet, an intranet, Internet,point of interaction device (point of sale device), personal digitalassistant/smartphone (e.g., iPhone®, Palm Pilot®, Blackberry®, and/or adevice running Android), cellular phone, kiosk, etc., onlinecommunications, satellite communications, off-line communications,wireless communications, transponder communications, local area network(LAN), wide area network (WAN), virtual private network (VPN), networkedor linked devices, keyboard, mouse and/or any suitable communication ordata input modality. Moreover, although the system is frequentlydescribed herein as being implemented with TCP/IP communicationsprotocols, the system may also be implemented using IPX, Appletalk,IP-6, NetBIOS, OSI, any tunneling protocol (e.g. IPsec, SSH), or anynumber of existing or future protocols. If the network is in the natureof a public network, such as the Internet, it may be advantageous topresume the network to be insecure and open to eavesdroppers. Specificinformation related to the protocols, standards, and applicationsoftware utilized in connection with the Internet is generally known tothose skilled in the art and, as such, need not be detailed herein. See,for example, DILIP NAIK, INTERNET STANDARDS AND PROTOCOLS (1998); JAVA 2COMPLETE, various authors, (Sybex 1999); DEBORAH RAY AND ERIC RAY,MASTERING HTML 4.0 (1997); and LOSHIN, TCP/IP CLEARLY EXPLAINED (1997)and DAVID GOURLEY AND BRIAN TOTTY, HTTP, THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE (2002),the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference.

The various system components may be independently, separately orcollectively suitably coupled to the network via data links whichincludes, for example, a connection to an Internet Service Provider(ISP) over the local loop as is typically used in connection withstandard modem communication, cable modem, Dish networks, ISDN, DigitalSubscriber Line (DSL), or various wireless communication methods, see,e.g., GILBERT HELD, UNDERSTANDING DATA COMMUNICATIONS (1996), which ishereby incorporated by reference. It is noted that the network may beimplemented as other types of networks, such as an interactivetelevision (ITV) network. Moreover, the system contemplates the use,sale or distribution of any goods, services or information over anynetwork having similar functionality described herein.

“Cloud” or “Cloud computing” includes a model for enabling convenient,on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computingresources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services)that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal managementeffort or service provider interaction. Cloud computing may includelocation-independent computing, whereby shared servers provideresources, software, and data to computers and other devices on demand.For more information regarding cloud computing, see the NIST's (NationalInstitute of Standards and Technology) definition of cloud computing athttp://csrc.nist.gov/groups/SNS/cloud-computing/cloud-def-v15.doc (lastvisited Feb. 4, 2011), which is hereby incorporated by reference in itsentirety.

As used herein, “transmit” may include sending electronic data from onesystem component to another over a network connection. Additionally, asused herein, “data” may include encompassing information such ascommands, queries, files, data for storage, and the like in digital orany other form.

As used herein, “issue a debit”, “debit” or “debiting” refers to eithercausing the debiting of a stored value or prepaid card-type financialaccount, or causing the charging of a credit or charge card-typefinancial account, as applicable.

Phrases and terms similar to an “item” may include any good, service,information, experience, data, content, access, rental, lease,contribution, account, credit, debit, benefit, right, reward, points,coupons, credits, monetary equivalent, anything of value, something ofminimal or no value, monetary value, non-monetary value and/or the like.

The system contemplates uses in association with web services, utilitycomputing, pervasive and individualized computing, security and identitysolutions, autonomic computing, cloud computing, commodity computing,mobility and wireless solutions, open source, biometrics, grid computingand/or mesh computing.

Any databases discussed herein may include relational, hierarchical,graphical, or object-oriented structure and/or any other databaseconfigurations. Common database products that may be used to implementthe databases include DB2 by IBM (Armonk, N.Y.), various databaseproducts available from Oracle Corporation (Redwood Shores, Calif.),Microsoft Access or Microsoft SQL Server by Microsoft Corporation(Redmond, Wash.), MySQL by MySQL AB (Uppsala, Sweden), or any othersuitable database product. Moreover, the databases may be organized inany suitable manner, for example, as data tables or lookup tables. Eachrecord may be a single file, a series of files, a linked series of datafields or any other data structure. Association of certain data may beaccomplished through any desired data association technique such asthose known or practiced in the art. For example, the association may beaccomplished either manually or automatically. Automatic associationtechniques may include, for example, a database search, a databasemerge, GREP, AGREP, SQL, using a key field in the tables to speedsearches, sequential searches through all the tables and files, sortingrecords in the file according to a known order to simplify lookup,and/or the like. The association step may be accomplished by a databasemerge function, for example, using a “key field” in pre-selecteddatabases or data sectors. Various database tuning steps arecontemplated to optimize database performance. For example, frequentlyused files such as indexes may be placed on separate file systems toreduce In/Out (“I/O”) bottlenecks.

More particularly, a “key field” partitions the database according tothe high-level class of objects defined by the key field. For example,certain types of data may be designated as a key field in a plurality ofrelated data tables and the data tables may then be linked on the basisof the type of data in the key field. The data corresponding to the keyfield in each of the linked data tables is preferably the same or of thesame type. However, data tables having similar, though not identical,data in the key fields may also be linked by using AGREP, for example.In accordance with one embodiment, any suitable data storage techniquemay be utilized to store data without a standard format. Data sets maybe stored using any suitable technique, including, for example, storingindividual files using an ISO/IEC 7816-4 file structure; implementing adomain whereby a dedicated file is selected that exposes one or moreelementary files containing one or more data sets; using data setsstored in individual files using a hierarchical filing system; data setsstored as records in a single file (including compression, SQLaccessible, hashed via one or more keys, numeric, alphabetical by firsttuple, etc.); Binary Large Object (BLOB); stored as ungrouped dataelements encoded using ISO/IEC 7816-6 data elements; stored as ungroupeddata elements encoded using ISO/IEC Abstract Syntax Notation (ASN.1) asin ISO/IEC 8824 and 8825; and/or other proprietary techniques that mayinclude fractal compression methods, image compression methods, etc.

In various embodiments, the ability to store a wide variety ofinformation in different formats is facilitated by storing theinformation as a BLOB. Thus, any binary information can be stored in astorage space associated with a data set. As discussed above, the binaryinformation may be stored on the financial transaction instrument orexternal to but affiliated with the financial transaction instrument.The BLOB method may store data sets as ungrouped data elements formattedas a block of binary via a fixed memory offset using either fixedstorage allocation, circular queue techniques, or best practices withrespect to memory management (e.g., paged memory, least recently used,etc.). By using BLOB methods, the ability to store various data setsthat have different formats facilitates the storage of data associatedwith the financial transaction instrument by multiple and unrelatedowners of the data sets. For example, a first data set which may bestored may be provided by a first party, a second data set which may bestored may be provided by an unrelated second party, and yet a thirddata set which may be stored, may be provided by an third partyunrelated to the first and second party. Each of these three exemplarydata sets may contain different information that is stored usingdifferent data storage formats and/or techniques. Further, each data setmay contain subsets of data that also may be distinct from othersubsets.

As stated above, in various embodiments, the data can be stored withoutregard to a common format. However, in one exemplary embodiment, thedata set (e.g., BLOB) may be annotated in a standard manner whenprovided for manipulating the data onto the financial transactioninstrument. The annotation may comprise a short header, trailer, orother appropriate indicator related to each data set that is configuredto convey information useful in managing the various data sets. Forexample, the annotation may be called a “condition header”, “header”,“trailer”, or “status”, herein, and may comprise an indication of thestatus of the data set or may include an identifier correlated to aspecific issuer or owner of the data. In one example, the first threebytes of each data set BLOB may be configured or configurable toindicate the status of that particular data set; e.g., LOADED,INITIALIZED, READY, BLOCKED, REMOVABLE, or DELETED. Subsequent bytes ofdata may be used to indicate for example, the identity of the issuer,user, transaction/membership account identifier or the like. Each ofthese condition annotations are further discussed herein.

The data set annotation may also be used for other types of statusinformation as well as various other purposes. For example, the data setannotation may include security information establishing access levels.The access levels may, for example, be configured to permit only certainindividuals, levels of employees, companies, or other entities to accessdata sets, or to permit access to specific data sets based on thetransaction, merchant, issuer, user or the like. Furthermore, thesecurity information may restrict/permit only certain actions such asaccessing, modifying, and/or deleting data sets. In one example, thedata set annotation indicates that only the data set owner or the userare permitted to delete a data set, various identified users may bepermitted to access the data set for reading, and others are altogetherexcluded from accessing the data set. However, other access restrictionparameters may also be used allowing various entities to access a dataset with various permission levels as appropriate.

The data, including the header or trailer may be received by a standalone interaction device configured to add, delete, modify, or augmentthe data in accordance with the header or trailer. As such, in oneembodiment, the header or trailer is not stored on the transactiondevice along with the associated issuer-owned data but instead theappropriate action may be taken by providing to the transactioninstrument user at the stand alone device, the appropriate option forthe action to be taken. The system may contemplate a data storagearrangement wherein the header or trailer, or header or trailer history,of the data is stored on the transaction instrument in relation to theappropriate data.

One skilled in the art will also appreciate that, for security reasons,any databases, systems, devices, servers or other components of thesystem may consist of any combination thereof at a single location or atmultiple locations, wherein each database or system includes any ofvarious suitable security features, such as firewalls, access codes,encryption, decryption, compression, decompression, and/or the like.

Encryption may be performed by way of any of the techniques nowavailable in the art or which may become available—e.g., Twofish, RSA,El Gamal, Schorr signature, DSA, PGP, PKI, and symmetric and asymmetriccryptosystems. Any form of encryption may be used to implement a securechannel, as described herein.

The computing unit of the web client may be further equipped with anInternet browser connected to the Internet or an intranet using standarddial-up, cable, DSL or any other Internet protocol known in the art.Transactions originating at a web client may pass through a firewall inorder to prevent unauthorized access from users of other networks.Further, additional firewalls may be deployed between the varyingcomponents of CMS to further enhance security.

Firewall may include any hardware and/or software suitably configured toprotect CMS components and/or enterprise computing resources from usersof other networks. Further, a firewall may be configured to limit orrestrict access to various systems and components behind the firewallfor web clients connecting through a web server. Firewall may reside invarying configurations including Stateful Inspection, Proxy based,access control lists, and Packet Filtering among others. Firewall may beintegrated within an web server or any other CMS components or mayfurther reside as a separate entity. A firewall may implement networkaddress translation (“NAT”) and/or network address port translation(“NAPT”). A firewall may accommodate various tunneling protocols tofacilitate secure communications, such as those used in virtual privatenetworking. A firewall may implement a demilitarized zone (“DMZ”) tofacilitate communications with a public network such as the Internet. Afirewall may be integrated as software within an Internet server, anyother application server components or may reside within anothercomputing device or may take the form of a standalone hardwarecomponent.

The computers discussed herein may provide a suitable website or otherInternet-based graphical user interface which is accessible by users. Invarious embodiments, the Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS),Microsoft Transaction Server (MTS), and Microsoft SQL Server, are usedin conjunction with the Microsoft operating system, Microsoft NT webserver software, a Microsoft SQL Server database system, and a MicrosoftCommerce Server. Additionally, components such as Access or MicrosoftSQL Server, Oracle, Sybase, Informix MySQL, Interbase, etc., may be usedto provide an Active Data Object (ADO) compliant database managementsystem. In one embodiment, the Apache web server is used in conjunctionwith a Linux operating system, a MySQL database, and the Perl, PHP,and/or Python programming languages.

Any of the communications, inputs, storage, databases or displaysdiscussed herein may be facilitated through a website having web pages.The term “web page” as it is used herein is not meant to limit the typeof documents and applications that might be used to interact with theuser. For example, a typical website might include, in addition tostandard HTML documents, various forms, Java applets, JavaScript, activeserver pages (ASP), common gateway interface scripts (CGI), extensiblemarkup language (XML), dynamic HTML, cascading style sheets (CSS), AJAX(Asynchronous Javascript And XML), helper applications, plug-ins, andthe like. A server may include a web service that receives a requestfrom a web server, the request including a URL(http://yahoo.com/stockquotes/ge) and an IP address (123.56.789.234).The web server retrieves the appropriate web pages and sends the data orapplications for the web pages to the IP address. Web services areapplications that are capable of interacting with other applicationsover a communications means, such as the internet. Web services aretypically based on standards or protocols such as XML, SOAP, AJAX, WSDLand UDDI. Web services methods are well known in the art, and arecovered in many standard texts. See, e.g., ALEX NGHIEM, IT WEB SERVICES:A ROADMAP FOR THE ENTERPRISE (2003), hereby incorporated by reference.

Middleware may include any hardware and/or software suitably configuredto facilitate communications and/or process transactions betweendisparate computing systems. Middleware components are commerciallyavailable and known in the art. Middleware may be implemented throughcommercially available hardware and/or software, through custom hardwareand/or software components, or through a combination thereof. Middlewaremay reside in a variety of configurations and may exist as a standalonesystem or may be a software component residing on the Internet server.Middleware may be configured to process transactions between the variouscomponents of an application server and any number of internal orexternal systems for any of the purposes disclosed herein. WebSphere MQ™(formerly MQSeries) by IBM, Inc. (Armonk, N.Y.) is an example of acommercially available middleware product. An Enterprise Service Bus(“ESB”) application is another example of middleware.

Practitioners will also appreciate that there are a number of methodsfor displaying data within a browser-based document. Data may berepresented as standard text or within a fixed list, scrollable list,drop-down list, editable text field, fixed text field, pop-up window,and the like. Likewise, there are a number of methods available formodifying data in a web page such as, for example, free text entry usinga keyboard, selection of menu items, check boxes, option boxes, and thelike.

The system and method may be described herein in terms of functionalblock components, screen shots, optional selections and variousprocessing steps. It should be appreciated that such functional blocksmay be realized by any number of hardware and/or software componentsconfigured to perform the specified functions. For example, the systemmay employ various integrated circuit components, e.g., memory elements,processing elements, logic elements, look-up tables, and the like, whichmay carry out a variety of functions under the control of one or moremicroprocessors or other control devices. Similarly, the softwareelements of the system may be implemented with any programming orscripting language such as C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, VBScript,Macromedia Cold Fusion, COBOL, Microsoft Active Server Pages, assembly,PERL, PHP, awk, Python, Visual Basic, SQL Stored Procedures, PL/SQL, anyUNIX shell script, and extensible markup language (XML) with the variousalgorithms being implemented with any combination of data structures,objects, processes, routines or other programming elements. Further, itshould be noted that the system may employ any number of conventionaltechniques for data transmission, signaling, data processing, networkcontrol, and the like. Still further, the system could be used to detector prevent security issues with a client-side scripting language, suchas JavaScript, VBScript or the like. For a basic introduction ofcryptography and network security, see any of the following references:(1) “Applied Cryptography: Protocols, Algorithms, And Source Code In C,”by Bruce Schneier, published by John Wiley & Sons (second edition,1995); (2) “Java Cryptography” by Jonathan Knudson, published byO'Reilly & Associates (1998); (3) “Cryptography & Network SecurityPrinciples & Practice” by William Stallings, published by Prentice Hall;all of which are hereby incorporated by reference.

In various embodiments, each participant is equipped with a computingdevice in order to interact with the system and facilitate onlinecommerce transactions. The customer has a computing unit in the form ofa personal computer, although other types of computing units may be usedincluding laptops, notebooks, hand held computers, set-top boxes,cellular telephones, touch-tone telephones and the like. The merchanthas a computing unit implemented in the form of a computer-server,although other implementations are contemplated by the system. The bankmay have a computing center shown as a main frame computer. However, thebank computing center may be implemented in other forms, such as amini-computer, a PC server, a network of computers located in the sameof different geographic locations, or the like. Moreover, the systemcontemplates the use, sale or distribution of any goods, services orinformation over any network having similar functionality describedherein

The merchant computer and the bank computer may be interconnected via asecond network, referred to as a payment network. The payment networkwhich may be part of certain transactions represents existingproprietary networks that presently accommodate transactions for creditcards, debit cards, and other types of financial/banking cards. Thepayment network is a closed network that is assumed to be secure fromeavesdroppers. Exemplary transaction networks may include the AmericanExpress®, VisaNet® and the Veriphone® networks. A transaction system maycomprise a payment network.

The electronic commerce system may be implemented at the customer andissuing bank. In an exemplary implementation, the electronic commercesystem is implemented as computer software modules loaded onto thecustomer computer and the banking computing center. The merchantcomputer does not require any additional software to participate in theonline commerce transactions supported by the online commerce system.

As will be appreciated by one of ordinary skill in the art, the systemmay be embodied as a customization of an existing system, an add-onproduct, upgraded software, a stand alone system, a distributed system,a method, a data processing system, a device for data processing, and/ora computer program product. Accordingly, the system may take the form ofan entirely software embodiment, an entirely hardware embodiment, or anembodiment combining aspects of both software and hardware. Furthermore,the system may take the form of a computer program product on acomputer-readable storage medium having computer-readable program codemeans embodied in the storage medium. Any suitable computer-readablestorage medium may be utilized, including hard disks, CD-ROM, opticalstorage devices, magnetic storage devices, and/or the like.

The system and method is described herein with reference to screenshots, block diagrams and flowchart illustrations of methods, apparatus(e.g., systems), and computer program products according to variousembodiments. It will be understood that each functional block of theblock diagrams and the flowchart illustrations, and combinations offunctional blocks in the block diagrams and flowchart illustrations,respectively, can be implemented by computer program instructions.

The process flows and screenshots illustrated or described are merelyembodiments and are not intended to limit the scope of the disclosure.For example, the steps recited in any of the method or processdescriptions may be executed in any order and are not limited to theorder presented. It will be appreciated that the following descriptionmakes appropriate references not only to the steps and user interfaceelements, but also to the various system components as described herein.

The computer program instructions may be loaded onto a general purposecomputer, special purpose computer, or other programmable dataprocessing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructionsthat execute on the computer or other programmable data processingapparatus create means for implementing the functions specified in theflowchart block or blocks. These computer program instructions may alsobe stored in a computer-readable memory that can direct a computer orother programmable data processing apparatus to function in a particularmanner, such that the instructions stored in the computer-readablememory produce an article of manufacture including instruction meanswhich implement the function specified in the flowchart block or blocks.The computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer orother programmable data processing apparatus to cause a series ofoperational steps to be performed on the computer or other programmableapparatus to produce a computer-implemented process such that theinstructions which execute on the computer or other programmableapparatus provide steps for implementing the functions specified in theflowchart block or blocks.

Accordingly, functional blocks of the block diagrams and flowchartillustrations support combinations of means for performing the specifiedfunctions, combinations of steps for performing the specified functions,and program instruction means for performing the specified functions. Itwill also be understood that each functional block of the block diagramsand flowchart illustrations, and combinations of functional blocks inthe block diagrams and flowchart illustrations, can be implemented byeither special purpose hardware-based computer systems which perform thespecified functions or steps, or suitable combinations of specialpurpose hardware and computer instructions. Further, illustrations ofthe process flows and the descriptions thereof may make reference touser windows, webpages, websites, web forms, prompts, etc. Practitionerswill appreciate that the illustrated steps described herein may comprisein any number of configurations including the use of windows, webpages,web forms, popup windows, prompts and the like. It should be furtherappreciated that the multiple steps as illustrated and described may becombined into single webpages and/or windows but have been expanded forthe sake of simplicity. In other cases, steps illustrated and describedas single process steps may be separated into multiple webpages and/orwindows but have been combined for simplicity.

Phrases and terms similar to “business” or “merchant” may be usedinterchangeably with each other and shall mean any person, entity,distributor system, software and/or hardware that is a provider, brokerand/or any other entity in the distribution chain of goods or services.For example, a merchant may be a grocery store, a retail store, a travelagency, a service provider, an on-line merchant or the like.

The terms “payment vehicle,” “financial transaction instrument,”“transaction instrument” and/or the plural form of these terms may beused interchangeably throughout to refer to a financial instrument.

Phrases similar to a “payment processor” may include a company (e.g., athird party) appointed (e.g., by a merchant) to handle transactions formerchant banks. Payment processors may be broken down into two types:front-end and back-end. Front-end payment processors have connections tovarious transaction accounts and supply authorization and settlementservices to the merchant banks' merchants. Back-end payment processorsaccept settlements from front-end payment processors and, via TheFederal Reserve Bank, move money from an issuing bank to the merchantbank. In an operation that will usually take a few seconds, the paymentprocessor will both check the details received by forwarding the detailsto the respective account's issuing bank or card association forverification, and may carry out a series of anti-fraud measures againstthe transaction. Additional parameters, including the account's countryof issue and its previous payment history, may be used to gauge theprobability of the transaction being approved. In response to thepayment processor receiving confirmation that the transaction accountdetails have been verified, the information may be relayed back to themerchant, who will then complete the payment transaction. In response tothe verification being denied, the payment processor relays theinformation to the merchant, who may then decline the transaction.

Phrases similar to a “payment gateway” or “gateway” may include anapplication service provider service that authorizes payments fore-businesses, online retailers, and/or traditional brick and mortarmerchants. The gateway may be the equivalent of a physical point of saleterminal located in most retail outlets. A payment gateway may protecttransaction account details by encrypting sensitive information, such astransaction account numbers, to ensure that information passes securelybetween the customer and the merchant and also between merchant andpayment processor.

Phrases similar to “vendor software” or “vendor” may include software,hardware and/or a solution provided from an external vendor (e.g., notpart of the merchant) to provide value in the payment process (e.g.,risk assessment).

The term “non-transitory” is to be understood to remove only propagatingtransitory signals per se from the claim scope and does not relinquishrights to all standard computer-readable media that are not onlypropagating transitory signals per se. Stated another way, the meaningof the term “non-transitory computer-readable medium” should beconstrued to exclude only those types of transitory computer-readablemedia which were found in In Re Nuijten to fall outside the scope ofpatentable subject matter under 35 U.S.C. § 101.

Benefits, other advantages, and solutions to problems have beendescribed herein with regard to specific embodiments. However, thebenefits, advantages, solutions to problems, and any elements that maycause any benefit, advantage, or solution to occur or become morepronounced are not to be construed as critical, required, or essentialfeatures or elements of the disclosure. The scope of the disclosure isaccordingly to be limited by nothing other than the appended claims, inwhich reference to an element in the singular is not intended to mean“one and only one” unless explicitly so stated, but rather “one ormore.” Moreover, where a phrase similar to ‘at least one of A, B, and C’or ‘at least one of A, B, or C’ is used in the claims or specification,it is intended that the phrase be interpreted to mean that A alone maybe present in an embodiment, B alone may be present in an embodiment, Calone may be present in an embodiment, or that any combination of theelements A, B and C may be present in a single embodiment; for example,A and B, A and C, B and C, or A and B and C. Although the disclosureincludes a method, it is contemplated that it may be embodied ascomputer program instructions on a tangible computer-readable carrier,such as a magnetic or optical memory or a magnetic or optical disk. Allstructural, chemical, and functional equivalents to the elements of theabove-described exemplary embodiments that are known to those ofordinary skill in the art are expressly incorporated herein by referenceand are intended to be encompassed by the present claims. Moreover, itis not necessary for a device or method to address each and everyproblem sought to be solved by the present disclosure, for it to beencompassed by the present claims. Furthermore, no element, component,or method step in the present disclosure is intended to be dedicated tothe public regardless of whether the element, component, or method stepis explicitly recited in the claims. No claim element herein is to beconstrued under the provisions of 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, unlessthe element is expressly recited using the phrase “means for.” As usedherein, the terms “comprises”, “comprising”, or any other variationthereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, such that aprocess, method, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of elementsdoes not include only those elements but may include other elements notexpressly listed or inherent to such process, method, article, orapparatus.

The invention claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: selecting, by aprocessor, a consumer set having similar characteristics; dividing, bythe processor, the consumer set into a target consumer set and a controlconsumer set; storing, by the processor, internal data of the targetconsumer set in a database as ungrouped data elements formatted as ablock of binary large object data (BLOB) via a fixed memory offset;partitioning, by the processor and using a key field, the databaseaccording to a class of objects defined by the key field to speedsearching for the internal data of the target consumer set; linking, bythe processor, data tables based on the type of data in the key fields;annotating, by the processor, the data sets to include securityinformation establishing access levels; obtaining, by the processor, theinternal data of the target consumer set from the database; identifying,by the processor and from the internal data of the target consumer set,a travel destination associated with an ad impression; identifying, bythe processor, from the internal data of the target consumer set, thetransaction in the internal data relating to the target consumer setoccurring at the travel destination, delivering, by the processor, thead impression comprising an electronic advertisement to a smartphone ofthe target consumer, wherein the delivering comprises: selecting aformat element to incorporate into the ad impression based on elementeffectiveness data, selecting a design element to incorporate into thead impression based on the element effectiveness data, and selecting acontent element to incorporate into the ad impression based on theelement effectiveness data, wherein the format element, the designelement, and the content element are components of an ad impressionstrength, wherein the element effectiveness data indicates that theelement is associated with enhanced ad impression effectiveness amongthe target consumer set; determining the enhanced ad impressioneffectiveness based on the ad impression strength and the ad impressionprecision; selecting a selected time to deliver the ad impression;wherein the time to deliver is a component of an ad impressionprecision, selecting a selected delivery method of the ad impression;determining element viewership effectiveness data, wherein the elementviewership effectiveness data indicates that the target consumer set islikely to view the ad impression in response to being delivered by theselected time to deliver, joining, by the processor, the transactionwith a target consumer of the target consumer set; determining, by theprocessor and from the internal data of the target consumer set, afrequency of behavior of the target consumer set for purchasing an itemcontemplated by the ad impression after a time period elapses;determining, by the processor and from internal data of the controlconsumer set, the frequency of behavior of the control consumer set forpurchasing the item after the time period elapses; and comparing, by theprocessor, the frequency of behavior of the control consumer set to thefrequency of behavior of the target consumer set.
 2. The method of claim1, further comprising comparing the internal data relating to the targetconsumer set to the internal data relating to the control consumer set.3. The method of claim 2, further comprising determining a secondcharacteristic that is present in the target consumer set and notpresent in the control consumer set.
 4. The method of claim 3, furthercomprising creating, by the processor, a second ad impression inresponse to the second characteristic; determining, by the processor, atarget consumer who exhibits the second characteristic; delivering, bythe processor, the second ad impression to the target consumer.
 5. Themethod of claim 4, wherein the second characteristic is at least one ofa transactional history, a history of ad impression effectiveness or anannual income level.
 6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:determining, by the processor and based on searching transactions in theinternal data, a complementary transaction of a complementary item tothe item; and determining, by the processor and based on the searchingthe transactions in the internal data, a competitive transaction of acompetitive item to the item, wherein the competitive transactioncomprises a transaction competitive with that contemplated by the adimpression.
 7. The method of claim 1, wherein the similarcharacteristics comprise at least all of: social network historycomprising propensity to engage in risky behavior, frequency of engagingin the risky behavior, dating history, past health status, presenthealth status, geographic information of consumers comprisinginstantaneous geographic information and historical instantaneousgeographic information, a history of ad impression effectiveness, anannual income level, a social network history, insurance claims, and asequence of product purchases, and wherein the social network historycomprises a pattern of past consumer geographic locations.
 8. A systemcomprising: a non-transitory memory communicating with a processor, thenon-transitory memory having instructions stored thereon that, inresponse to execution by the processor, cause the processor to performoperations comprising: selecting, by a processor, a consumer set havingsimilar characteristics; dividing, by the processor, the consumer setinto a target consumer set and a control consumer set; storing, by theprocessor, internal data of the target consumer set in a database asungrouped data elements formatted as a block of binary large object data(BLOB) via a fixed memory offset; partitioning, by the processor andusing a key field, the database according to a class of objects definedby the key field to speed searching for the internal data of the targetconsumer set; linking, by the processor, data tables based on the typeof data in the key fields; annotating, by the processor, the data setsto include security information establishing access levels; obtaining,by the processor, the internal data of the target consumer set from thedatabase; identifying, by the processor and from the internal data ofthe target consumer set, a travel destination associated with an adimpression; identifying, by the processor, from the internal data of thetarget consumer set, the transaction in the internal data relating tothe target consumer set occurring at the travel destination, delivering,by the processor, the ad impression comprising an electronicadvertisement to a smartphone of the target consumer, wherein thedelivering comprises: selecting a format element to incorporate into thead impression based on element effectiveness data, selecting a designelement to incorporate into the ad impression based on the elementeffectiveness data, and selecting a content element to incorporate intothe ad impression based on the element effectiveness data, wherein theformat element, the design element, and the content element arecomponents of an ad impression strength, wherein the elementeffectiveness data indicates that the element is associated withenhanced ad impression effectiveness among the target consumer set;determining the enhanced ad impression effectiveness based on the adimpression strength and the ad impression precision; selecting aselected time to deliver the ad impression; wherein the time to deliveris a component of an ad impression precision, selecting a selecteddelivery method of the ad impression; determining element viewershipeffectiveness data, wherein the element viewership effectiveness dataindicates that the target consumer set is likely to view the adimpression in response to being delivered by the selected time todeliver, joining, by the processor, the transaction with a targetconsumer of the target consumer set; determining, by the processor andfrom the internal data of the target consumer set, a frequency ofbehavior of the target consumer set for purchasing an item contemplatedby the ad impression after a time period elapses; determining, by theprocessor and from internal data of the control consumer set, thefrequency of behavior of the control consumer set for purchasing theitem after the time period elapses; and comparing, by the processor, thefrequency of behavior of the control consumer set to the frequency ofbehavior of the target consumer set.
 9. The system of claim 8, furthercomprising comparing the internal data relating to the target consumerset to the internal data relating to the control consumer set.
 10. Thesystem of claim 9, further comprising determining a secondcharacteristic that is present in the target consumer set and notpresent in the control consumer set.
 11. The system of claim 10, furthercomprising creating, by the processor, a second ad impression inresponse to the second characteristic; determining, by the processor, atarget consumer who exhibits the second characteristic; delivering, bythe processor, the second ad impression to the target consumer.
 12. Thesystem of claim 11, wherein the second characteristic is at least one ofa transactional history, a history of ad impression effectiveness, or anannual income level.
 13. The system of claim 8, further comprising:determining, by the processor and based on searching transactions in theinternal data, a complementary transaction of a complementary item tothe item; and determining, by the processor and based on the searchingthe transactions in the internal data, a competitive transaction of acompetitive item to the item, wherein the competitive transactioncomprises a transaction competitive with that contemplated by the adimpression.
 14. The system of claim 8, wherein the social networkhistory comprises a pattern of past consumer geographic locations.
 15. Anon-transitory computer readable storage medium, bearing instructionsthat, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to performoperations comprising: selecting, by a processor, a consumer set havingsimilar characteristics; dividing, by the processor, the consumer setinto a target consumer set and a control consumer set; storing, by theprocessor, internal data of the target consumer set in a database asungrouped data elements formatted as a block of binary large object data(BLOB) via a fixed memory offset; partitioning, by the processor andusing a key field, the database according to a class of objects definedby the key field to speed searching for the internal data of the targetconsumer set; linking, by the processor, data tables based on the typeof data in the key fields; annotating, by the processor, the data setsto include security information establishing access levels; obtaining,by the processor, the internal data of the target consumer set from thedatabase; identifying, by the processor and from the internal data ofthe target consumer set, a travel destination associated with an adimpression; identifying, by the processor, from the internal data of thetarget consumer set, the transaction in the internal data relating tothe target consumer set occurring at the travel destination, delivering,by the processor, the ad impression comprising an electronicadvertisement to a smartphone of the target consumer, wherein thedelivering comprises: selecting a format element to incorporate into thead impression based on element effectiveness data, selecting a designelement to incorporate into the ad impression based on the elementeffectiveness data, and selecting a content element to incorporate intothe ad impression based on the element effectiveness data, wherein theformat element, the design element, and the content element arecomponents of an ad impression strength, wherein the elementeffectiveness data indicates that the element is associated withenhanced ad impression effectiveness among the target consumer set;determining the enhanced ad impression effectiveness based on the adimpression strength and the ad impression precision; selecting aselected time to deliver the ad impression; wherein the time to deliveris a component of an ad impression precision, selecting a selecteddelivery method of the ad impression; determining element viewershipeffectiveness data, wherein the element viewership effectiveness dataindicates that the target consumer set is likely to view the adimpression in response to being delivered by the selected time todeliver, joining, by the processor, the transaction with a targetconsumer of the target consumer set; determining, by the processor andfrom the internal data of the target consumer set, a frequency ofbehavior of the target consumer set for purchasing an item contemplatedby the ad impression after a time period elapses; determining, by theprocessor and from internal data of the control consumer set, thefrequency of behavior of the control consumer set for purchasing theitem after the time period elapses; and comparing, by the processor, thefrequency of behavior of the control consumer set to the frequency ofbehavior of the target consumer set.
 16. The non-transitory computerreadable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the operations furthercomprise comparing the internal data relating to the target consumer setto the internal data relating to the control consumer set.
 17. Thenon-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein theoperations further comprise determining a second characteristic that ispresent in the target consumer set and not present in the controlconsumer set.
 18. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium ofclaim 17, wherein the operations further comprise creating, by theprocessor, a second ad impression in response to the secondcharacteristic; determining, by the processor, a target consumer whoexhibits the second characteristic; delivering, by the processor, thesecond ad impression to the target consumer.
 19. The non-transitorycomputer readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein the secondcharacteristic is at least one of a transactional history, a history ofad impression effectiveness or an annual income level.
 20. Thenon-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 15, furthercomprising: determining, by the processor and based on searchingtransactions in the internal data, a complementary transaction of acomplementary item to the item; and determining, by the processor andbased on the searching the transactions in the internal data, acompetitive transaction of a competitive item to the item, wherein thecompetitive transaction comprises a transaction competitive with thatcontemplated by the ad impression.